If you’re a Stratego fan and are impatiently waiting for your children to be old enough to play, your wait is over! Stratego, Jr. is the perfect way to teach your children how to play and to love Stratego. You can help your children with strategy, too, when you play Stratego, Jr. with them.
What’s in the box?
The Stratego, Jr. game box include the game board, 32 dinosaurs (16 each of purple and orange) 6 eggs (3 each of purple and orange) and one die. There is some assembly required. The dinosaur molds (two pieces per dinosaur) have to be detached and then the cardboard number piece gets inserted into the belly. The same goes for the eggs (also two pieces per egg).
The die has one of each of the six dinosaur types per side: Pterodactyl (1); Parasaurolophus (2); Triceratops (3); Stegosaurus (4); Brontosaurus (5); one Tyrannosaurus Rex (6); and two marked X and have a rock instead of a dinosaur.
For each player (purple or orange) the set of dinosaurs includes: one Pterodactyl; four Parasurlophuses; four Triceratopses; three Stegosaurses; one Brontosaurus; and one Tyrannosaurus Rex. Each player also has three eggs: one empty nest (from which your egg was stolen); one egg stolen from your opponent (the orange plastic egg has the stolen purple egg and the purple plastic egg has the stolen orange egg); and one meteorite.
TOP TIP: When playing with younger players, play in teams to give them the best chance of success.
How to play Stratego, Jr.
There two ways to play Stratego, Jr.: Stratego Quest! (a matching game) and Stratego Triumph! (a battle game), and the goal of both is to get across the board so you can retrieve your stolen egg from your opponent’s volcano. For both games, the board set-up is the same. Each player places a dinosaur on each rectangle on their side of the board, with the dinosaur facing you. The middle row stays empty. Where each dinosaur is placed is up to the player. There is some strategy to where the dinosaurs are placed. You can also choose which egg goes on which volcano, again, the egg faces you. Your opponent will only see orange or purple, depending on which color you’re playing (if you’re playing against me, you are always orange, because purple is my favorite color).
In Stratego Quest!, the dinosaurs don’t move around the board. The purple player goes first by rolling the die. Then they choose one of the orange dinosaurs in the front row. If it matches the dinosaur on the die, the dinosaur gets removed from the board. If it doesn’t match, it gets put back on its spot. Try to remember it, because you could it to match on a future turn. It’s then orange’s turn to go and play alternates as a path is cleared to the volcanoes. Once you have cleared a dinosaur from your opponent’s front row, every dinosaur that is “exposed” by the gap is available for matching. You cannot reach into the center of a group of dinosaurs to make a match. When either player clears a path to the volcanoes, that player can choose an egg on their next turn.
TOP TIP: Start with Stratego Quest! When your littles are comfortable with the game play, try Stratego Triumph!
In Stratego Triumph!, the dinosaurs do move around the board and the die is not used. The orange player goes first. There are two action options per turn. You can either move a dinosaur (rocks can’t move) or attack an opponent’s dinosaur. Dinosaurs can move forwards, backwards or sideways to an adjacent free space, but not diagonally. They also can’t go back and forth between two stops. You can move that dinosaur again on your next turn, but it must be to a different space than previously occupied (not ever, but on consecutive turns).
Attacking brings the number on your dinosaur into play. The number indicates the strength, with the weakest being the Pterodactyl (1) and the strongest being the Tyrranosaurus Rex (6). When you attack, you challenge a dinosaur on a spot adjacent to one of your dinosaurs (except diagonally). If your dinosaur has a higher number than the dinosaur you challenged, you win, your dinosaur moves to the defeated dinosaur’s spot, and the losing dinosaur leaves the board. The one exception is that Pterodactyls (1) beat Tyrannosaurus Rex (6) – just like in the real world, because Pterodactyls attack in groups. If the numbers of both dinosaurs are the same, both are removed from the board. If your dinosaur has a lower number than the dinosaur you challenged, your dinosaur is removed from the board and the winning dinosaur keeps its place. If you challenge a rock, you lose, unless you challenge with a Tricerotops (3), which can remove the rocks with their hard horns. As with Stratego Quest!, when either player clears a path to the volcanoes, that player can choose an egg on their next turn.
The first person to reach their opponent’s volcanoes gets to choose an egg on their next turn. If you choose the egg with the empty nest, you can remove the egg from the board and choose another egg on your next turn. If you choose the meteorite, that egg is removed from the board, along with your dinosaur, and you have to try to get to the volcanoes again with a different dinosaur. If you find your stolen egg, you win!
Stratego, Jr. is a great teaching game. It’s fun, goal-oriented, and has levels of play that different ages children can excel at. And if you have different ages of children, they can play together, too, because Stratego Quest! Is simple, but fun for all ages. Because of the choking hazard of the small pieces, this game is recommended for ages 3 and up. If you’re teaming up with younger children, keep an eye on those pieces. There are a lot of them.
https://www.amazon.com/Jumbo-Stratego-Version-Strategy-Players/
٭٭٭٭٭Highly Recommended
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